Standing Technical Committee Report

Presenter: Stephan Zientara, Chairperson Standing Technical Committee (Appendix 12)

Key Messages

1. The committee held six meetings – one of which was face-to-face in ANSES. 2. The main activity was the guidance for the Open Session 2020 with the theme “Livelihoods @risk in a FASTer world”. 3. This event included four virtual sessions in December 2020, four virtual workshops in

January/February 2021 and a closure meeting in mid-February, and was attended by over 3 000 participants. 4. Other items covered by the Committee during the biennium were: FAST diseases control and management; Call for applied research; Vaccine pre-qualification system; EuFMD as risk information provider; Sub-committees activities and situations (SCBRM, SCSAR); Gaps, Priorities and opportunities emerging from COVID 19 situation; Opinion on serotype C in EU bank.

Summary

Dr Zientara introduced the committee, which has six members from France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Six committee meetings were held during the first biennium, on 18 June 2019, 7 November 2019, 27 February 2020, 3 June 2020, 9 September 2020 and 4 February 2021. The main activities of the Committee were focused on the below items.

FAST diseases control and management

FAST diseases was a major change in the activities of the EuFMD and the Standing Technical Committee (STC) has given guidance in balancing the efforts made. Considering that up to 2019 the EuFMD supported multiple disease surveillance only in the Thrace region, the STC has assisted the team in identifying gaps that needed to be addressed in accordance with the new strategic approach. Integrated Risk-Based surveillance seems to be an area to which all the members of the STC can contribute.

The STC has contributed to EuFMD modelling (looking into opportunities for its application for vector-borne diseases) as well as in establishing training priorities, anticipating whether such trainings should address specific diseases or rather address thematic items that can represent cross-cutting issues among different FAST diseases.

Preparation of the Open Session 2021

The Open Session of the Standing Technical Committee of the European Commission for the Control of Footand-Mouth Disease is held every two years and has become the largest technical and scientific meeting on Footand-mouth Disease to be convened on a regular basis. The EuFMD has organized these meetings since the early 1970s, alternating a Closed Session with an Open Session for scientific exchange.

Due to the travel restrictions related to Covid-19, the Open Session 2020 (OS20) was held in a virtual format and over four days in December (8, 10, 15, and 17). The online conferences were hosted in a virtual space (the EuFMD lighthouse) and the scope broadened to TADs similar to FMD, which remained the focus. Under the theme of “Livelihoods @ risk in a FASTer world”, 45 Keynote and oral presentations were delivered during four sessions:

1) Measuring animal movements and drivers for FAST risk mapping; 2) From risk to actions, make them happen; 3) Vaccine security and critical resources for emergency management; 4) Resilience to long term FAST crisis.

Each session had a Chair and two facilitators. A question and answer roundtable was conducted at the end of each session to reply to all the questions sent in via a dedicated chat box in the virtual area. The virtual environment allowed participants to engage in a discussion forum concerning the talks and posters. A virtual poster area was set up, showing 76 studies and works, with podcasts by the authors summarizing their findings. Two gaming experiences related to diseases prevention and control were available, one of which is an interactive lesion ageing video and the other is the Get Prepared wall. Participants could access an information point and a live chat box connected to the EuFMD. Seven dedicated virtual rooms were available, to show the core activities and projects led by the EuFMD Team: Training, EUFMDis, Simulation Exercises, Pragmatist, Pre-qualification of Vaccines, Risk Forecasting and Global Strategy GFRA, GF-TADs, and PPR.

The virtual format of the Open Session resulted in a large number of participants: over 3000 users from all over the world accessed the website and virtual environment to watch the live and recorded sessions. In addition, the event was also broadcast live via Facebook™ and YouTube™, and available after the event for those in different time zones.

Call for applied research

The prioritization of applied research projects was outlined during the Bari (Italy, 2019) meeting. In particular (i) Penside test for FMD to differentiate serotypes; (ii) Penside test for FMD, PPR and SG-Pox; (iii) Non-invasive sampling; (iv) Studies to reduce PPR vaccine wastage; (v) development of simple tools to teach bio-security; (vi) studies on culling and disposal capacities in Member Nations with modelling, which is a bottleneck for EuFMDis.

The STC has agreed with the themes proposed with the exception of item (vi) which seemed to be more a logistic issue rather than a topic for a research proposal.

For Pillar I, the main priority is to improve policy support with the objective of identifying control options that could guarantee business continuity especially for those countries with significant export to other EU or third countries. Additional priorities could be the identification of guidance criteria on when to implement preventive vaccination against FMD, LSD, Sheep and Goat pox and PPR.

For Pillar II and III, a priority area could be the improvement of surveillance systems for FAST disease with a major output being new or adapted tools for managers. Another area of research could be the optimization of environmental sampling with a major output being its application to routine or early detection of FMD in settings like animal markets.

Recently, and following the FMD EURL workshop (organized in November 2020), a research project proposal to assess the efficacy of vaccines against A/Africa/GIV strain was also discussed among the STC members. The issue of the amount of funds requested for the proposal was further discussed in relation to the overall amount (200,000 Euro) allocated by the EuFMD for such activities. The STC members proposed that, in order not to deplenish the fund (and be detrimental for other potential proposals), two parallel options need to be explored: (i) request to explore the possibility of lowering the amount requested for the vaccine efficacy study; and (ii) explore the possibility of obtaining extra funds.

Three preliminarily potential new research themes were also identified: (i) Define criteria on when to implement emergency vaccination in disease free countries; (ii) Policy support tools for economic analysis of FAST control strategies; (iii) Operational optimization of environmental sampling.

Vaccine pre-qualification system

The STC has followed regularly and given advice on the progress with developing a procedure for prequalification (PQv) of vaccines against FAST diseases on several issues that have arisen in discussions of the Technical Advisory Group on PQ (PQTAG). The approach under development is based on the principle that PQv is not a new or additional regulatory procedure, but is a scientific peer-review of evidence of the quality, safety and efficacy of a vaccine that will include details of any previous registration/licensing/authorization that has been issued by a regulatory authority. The committee endorsed that the procedure for PQv should be simplified for those vaccines that have already been approved by recognized authorities such as the EMA or USDA. The procedure should not exclude those vaccines that have not been approved to the standards of advanced regulatory regions such as the EU or US. One of the objectives should be to provide a route to approval or recognition of quality for vaccines produced to adequate standards in other regions.

The STC supported the work done by David Mackay and the upcoming efforts through a working group to review thoroughly the results of the discussions held at the Rome meeting (Jan 2020) on (i) vaccine prequalification and (ii) vaccine demand for FAST diseases. The STC supported, in principle, the creation of a dedicated committee to oversee the operation of the procedure in order to provide appropriate scrutiny, input from OIE and other partners, and sustainability of operation.

EuFMD as risk information provider

The STC has supported the EuFMD by providing information on risks to Member Nations and informing on the changes of such risks. The FMD quarterly report is one of these tools and recently provided support to Member Nations to better assess their respective risks.

Moreover, the information at country level can be summarized in country cards or be represented through the outputs generated by the FMD Self-Assessment Tool that can be used for Risk Assessment purposes. There is also the possibility of further developing data-sharing in specific regions through Statement of Intention agreements (currently in place between South East European neighbouring countries).

The STC members believe that the information generated through these EUFMD initiatives complement those that, for example, the OIE provides. The OIE database is updated every six months by endemic countries, and the information generated through this initiatives can be at shorter intervals.

Sub-committees activities and situations (SCBRM, SCSAR)

These two committees met only once, in Bari (Italy) in 2019. The STC gave advice on their activities, which are very useful in assisting in fine-tuning the EuFMD program and may further assist in areas that still need support.

Gaps, Priorities and opportunities emerging from COVID 19 situation

The STC was concerned about the COVID-19 crisis which has caused a significant reduction of capacity to respond in the event of an outbreak. The STC has taken into consideration the COVID-19 impact survey for Risk assessment purposes, considering that a delay in the detection of FAST diseases may translate into an increased risk of introduction.

Serotype C in EU bank

The STC has suggested that a decision-making methodology should be defined and that it can be proposed to be developed by the WRL using the PRAGMATIST tool.

Discussion

Mr. Sumption congratulated Mr. Zientara and his team, and the secretariat, for their work, which was greatly appreciated.

The Chairman extended his thanks on behalf of the Executive Committee and Member Nations for the delivery of the Open Session 2020, which was extraordinary.

Conclusion

The composition of the STC, with same members of previous biennium was endorsed.